Sunday, July 23, 2017

What I had thought would be about a 10-minute
gentle sayonara turned into a 45 minute feedback session on my leaving, which
was a surprise, but not unwelcome.

Several group members voiced their reactions to my bowing out, and they had some interesting points to make, the most interesting being that they thought I hadn't considered how my absence would affect them. I had, to be honest, but I didn't
think that my contributions were significant as they made it out to be, which
was both refreshing and humbling.

One thing I was prepared for was
disappointment, and it was evident that my leaving was not taken by several
people in a better light, but so be it.

As I said at the end, I need to
be doing something else: writing. Every fiber of my being, all the
tension that I'm feeling, the lack of focus and the sense of invaluable time
passing all pointed towards the bowing out, as I should've done at the end of
June.

But that's hindsight, and now I'm
just looking forward again.

July 18 – Speaking of...

Writing's about all I've been doing
this week.

Getting into the flow is key,
and that process for me is simply spending enough time every day to make the
story stick in my head, so that when I'm doing other things I can come right
back to the writing and the flow starts again immediately. I can really feel
the book jelling again in my head, and I think that I should probably have
taken a 'writing vacation' earlier in 2017 already.

Have you ever wondered what the heck
is in everything in the world?

When I look at the Periodic Table from
time to time for inspiration or for research for my stories, I wonder what some
of the more exotic foreign usual elements are used for in our world. Then I
found this amazing interactive table, which explains it all - so useful!

July 19 – Valerian?!?!

Such anticipation! Such excitement!

After winning passes last week, my
girlfriend and I went to see Valerian( the latest movie from Luc
Besson )tonight at a preview screening. I've never been to a movie preview
before, and even though it was a packed house when we arrived, we managed to
find two perfect seats right in the middle of the theater - yes!

Then the show began... and I got less
excited.

SPOILERS BELOW.

Note the eyeballs on the left...

I went in with an open mind, thrilled
that Luc Besson finally got to make his dream project of his, a miracle
independent film costing hundreds of millions of dollars that only exist
because so many people believed in his vision of Valerian.

Which he delivered, I have to say:
visually, the film is sumptuous, with so many special effects that two
major CGI companies( Lucasfilm and WETA Digital ) had to split the over
2700 CGI shots between them in order to complete all. The opening sequence was
stunning and imaginative, and the rest of the film's CGI was top-notch, to the
point where the line between what was real and wasn't was thoroughly blurred.

Unfortunately, that's for the romance
ended for me.

The lead actors were enthusiastic but
not properly cast, as they felt like the understudies who had suddenly been
asked to fill the main roles and their performances were less than the film
needed. Indeed, the romance between the two leads felt like two high school
kids awkwardly standing at their first dance.

The story was overlong and clunky and
could probably have benefited from a trip of about 20 to 30 minutes to tighten
things up. It was unnecessarily complicated and the 'big reveal' of the big
villain's identity was excessively telegraphed.

Was an enjoyable? Yes, to my
eight-year-old self, but not my current self.

Was The Fifth Element a better
film? Unquestionably, yes.

What I watch it again? Only on
Blu-ray so I could enjoy the CGI effects in all their glory, and I download a
'fan cut' if it meant a shorter, tighter film.

Darn... if the film does well
overall, we may get a sequel that will be far better, but tonight I went home
simply thankful that the film had finally been made, and by someone who loved
it instead of a hack who bought the rights only to butcher things - I'm looking
at you, Michael Bay!

July 20 – Tent Rentals?

Rent in the city is still too damn
expensive.

Even though the latest reports shows
that Victoria's rents dropped by 5.1% in June 2017, the reality is that most
rental units Victoria experience some form of bidding, especially if they're in
good areas or have other desirable features.

It sucks, but that's what you get
when economic growth booms in a limited geographic area: supply and demand. I'm
actually surprised to see that the rents in my old stomping grounds in Niagara
are so high, so all things considered, it wouldn't be much different from the
living there then it would be here.

At least it's not like Fort McMurray,
where back in 2014 during the oil boom, one-bedroom apartments were going for
over $1700 - ouch!

So there's that.

I'm still working on my tiny house
plans, having taken the first steps last week to speak to City Hall about the
bylaws in place for housing and how tiny homes fit into( or don't )current
standards. It's going to be a while before I can afford a home of any kind, but
it's best to start early because red tape is really sticky stuff...

July 21 – Home Stretch!

As of this evening, all my novel
notes have been entered!

This is an incredibly important
milestone, for as you can see from the photo below there were hundreds of notes
that I've been entering the last few months:

Blurred for spoiler reasons!

Now that the notes are DONE, I'll
be taking the last step: a final revision.

This is a line by line at, one that
is absolutely necessary from my point of view. It will let me continue refining
the story / plot details, find small errors, make each of the characters
distinct with their own voice, add little details for verisimilitude, and
generally tighten up the novel sentence by sentence.

I estimate that I'll be able to
properly revise 3 to 4 chapters a night, which means I should be done this at
it by the end of July, though I'm not going to push myself too hard due to my
core's inability to take sitting for too long in any one position.

It's exhilarating to have reach this
point, which I had hoped to be at six months ago, to be honest, but for those
of you regularly reading my blog you'll know why I've not been able to set a
proper pace for faster completion.

It's been great to have this entire
week to devote to working on the novel. As I said above, if I could just spend
an entire month only writing and doing nothing else each day, I'm
certain I could turn out a full novel in that time.

In the meantime, it's taken five
years to get to this point, and I'm going to relish the feeling of being on
home stretch!

July 22 – Editing Excitement!

After a full day, I've completed
editing SIX chapters!

I feel incredibly good about the
progress that I made, though I realize I won't be able to make as much progress
during the week due to fewer hours in the evening, but today's completed amount
of editing important because it shows just how well things can go in the Flow.

Being able to visualize the case at
which proper editing proceeds for my book is critical, so I don't overestimate
my abilities and know what I have to accomplish each evening until it's done.
I'm doing my best to refine what I see and not add unnecessarily, so that the
book doesn't but rather becomes leaner, with each scene balanced within its own
meaning and the overall story of the book.

Once I'm done my editing in about 10
days, I'll print out a few copies of the draft and a half-dozen people look
them over for any final adjustments. Considering the quality of some of the
stories I've been reading lately, some would consider even a fourth draft or
final revisions overkill, but in the current market, I need my book to stand
head and shoulders above all others... hence the extra work.

From there, it's time to send it out
to agents!

I should also note that thanks to a
rearrangement of my bedding this week, I've been able to sleep more easily and
without any major stomach pain. It's all thanks to a wedgie, as you can see
from this picture:

Looks comfy, no?

Sleeping at a 30° angle does take
some getting used to, though it's not without precedent: the Minbari from
Babylon 5 slept at a 45° angle, which in the show they said was beneficial to
their spiritual as well as physical health.

Who am I to argue with that?

July 23 – Last Vacay Day

I took a break this morning with my
girlfriend to enjoy the beautiful weather.

After a sumptuous breakfast at The
Beacon( gawd, those pancakes!!! )we went down to the Harrison Boat Pond
just as the clouds vanished and the sun started blazing. There was a good crowd
of about a dozen RC boaters, and among them was the group president, who had
brought my PT boat back with him after working on it this week.

Left: AMAZING paint job! Right: My blah boat...

Unfortunately, there wasn't much he
could do: one motor is completely burned out and the other is on its way out to
- drat! I'll have to replace both, which fortunately will only cost about $30
and take up a little bit of time two remove the old and then mount the new ones
at the correct angles. It'll be great to see the boat run at full power, as
it's designed to do, and once the mechanicals are up to speed, all think about
adding details like paint, decals and painted crew members to bring the ship to
life in all its proper WW2 glory again.

That's the nice thing about hobbies:
you can spend as much or as little time or money on them as you see fit,
depending on the results you want. For me, since I don't have a shop or studio
of any kind where I can do model paintwork, it limits my options. I want to end
up with a good-looking boat that I haven't lavished exorbitant amounts of time
or money on, as in the end it's more of a toy than a realistic representation
of a PT-109 boat. It just has to look good on the water, in my eyes, and it's already
halfway there my opinion: it just seeing to the details.

Of course, I'd like it to be able to move
on the water too... which it will, in time.

The last half of my final day of vacation, I split between writing my blog and editing.

It was great. :-)

It’s been a solid vacation, truly
enjoyable with the exception of being in more pain some days than I’d like… but
at this point it’s academic, as I’m learning what’s causing my core muscles to
ache and what I can do to help them not stress out. Staycations like this seem
to feel better somehow in the summer, as I can just concentrate and not worry
too much day to day, since I can just step outside for a walk in a shirt
anytime I need – yay!